The Penn's Grove record., 1887-01-08
SPORT IN INDIA.
The Fierce Delight Of Spearins
Roars and Hunting Man-Eat-
ing Tigers.


Hog.huntiag is the chief sport OF
India and especially of Bengal; Anglo
Indians say scarcely any sport in the
world Is so exciting, and this no doubt
IS true. The spear must be clever!
handled, and a certain aim Is required
to use it fatally when the rider is racing
over all sorts of ground at top speed;
beside, the safety of the horse has to
be looked to-, for one slash Of a boar's
task will give a cut as from an ak.
Though our author has enjoyed every
kind or good sport in Bengal, and all
the danger and excitement incident to
| tiger. shooting, he nevertheless holds
that a chase after a tough boar is
the highest diversion of all. "There
is" he says, "a rapture and delight
In the pace, which must be the best
your horse can go; al excitement IN
the struggle for first spear; a satlslac-
ton IN the combat with q plucky
well-grown boar, only to be equalled
by a fast forty minutes without n
check, when well mounted and able o
hold your own, ver the splendid pas
lures of Market, Marlborough and Mel
TOM
What an artistic ''pig-stlcker' Mr..
| Simpson is or was may be gathered
from the following extract from his
diary:
sat Christmas, 1854, / could get no
| companion who would ride; but on the
| Oath of December | killed twelve large
boars, and, on the 18th. thirteen.
This, as l was single-handed, was glor-
ious sport: nv arm was stiff and tired
with the hard work. | was now, L
may say, an accomplished handler OF
the spear, for / dispatched these
twenty. five old fighting bears without
allowing the horses to receive a single
scratch"
In the chapters IN tiger shooting,
sundry curious anecdotes of elephants
are given. Some elephants are coura-
geous in the extreme when facing
tigers, and others are as cowardly
though what is real courage in an ele-
plant. Mr.. Simpson cannot determine.
One day, he relates, of the staunch-
est among these huge beasts bolted
several times from a rat. which came
at it angrily squeaking, with its back
| up and fur standing on end.
Among the large number of tigers
he has killed, Mr.. Simpson never
| found one which exceeded eleven feet
from snout to end of tail when properly
measured, and thu most experienced
| tiger-slayer of his acquaintance, a gem
! tleman who has shot over five hundred,
cannot say that he ever obtained a
tiger more than a few inches over
eleven feet.
1t would seem that a tiger measuring
ten feet is a very large tiger, though
now and then tigers reach ten feet
three inches; while a few rare and
very exceptional cases are on record
of tigers of from eleven to Twelve feet
long. Mr.. Simpson warns the novice
against shooting on foot, and considers
it little short of madness to thus re-
ceive the attack of a tiger; for he justly
observes that though a man be ever so
good q shot and able to place his bullet
where he pleases-though the hunters
nerve be like a machine, and he may
not feel pulsation increase as he sees a
large tiger bounding toward him, when
the only chance of saving his life IS
the delivery of a shot that shall be in
| stantly fatal-still, the risk is too
great. The best shots occasionally
| shoot more or less wide of the exact
marks and many a mortal wound may
not instantaneously deprive an animal
| of power, for a tiger may charge on
| with a ball in his heart for even an
| hundred yards, and then strike a muir
| derous blow with his mighty paw.
Buffaloes, it may be added, are difficult
TO kill, and are often almost as danger
Gus to pursue as are tiers.
Perhaps the boide,t instance OF
shooting on foot, the result of which
was evidently more the result of good
luck than good management, is to lie
found in a story told of a gallant old
Frenchman named DeverIa, who, says
Mr.. Simpson, had served under The
great Napoleon, and was a remarkably
daring and cool man. He was informed
that a tiger had taken up its quarters
near his house. so he went and took a
look at 1t crouchlng IN the grass. He
returned home and cleaned his ole
single barreled life, fitted a bullet to
it after much trimming with a PEN
knife, and sailed forth, intending TO
shoot at the animal at some distance,
but he thought, as he had only one
chance, he had better get closer, so he
walked up to within about afteen yards
of it. The tiger never moved, and
the Frenehman killed it on the spot
with a hall thrnuoh the brain